Blood vessels, particularly those within the artery vessel system, provides nutrition and oxygen to every part of the body and therefore plays a significant role in protecting the health of the body. Pathologies within the blood circulation system may cause a patient's hemodynamic status to change rapidly. By monitoring and diagnosing blood vessel functionality, on-time detection of pathologies and abnormalities within the blood circulation system will be greatly enhanced. Peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SPO2) and blood pressure measurements are typical clinical approaches to measure and capture blood flow and oximetric parameters. However, blood pressure waveform and SPO2 waveforms, which come from the same source (i.e., heart), have not been untied and combined to monitor the blood circulation system. There are no known quantitative and qualitative methods that use both blood pressure and SPO2 signals to quantify and characterize vessel health status efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, blood pressure waveform and SPO2 waveform and data diagnosis require extensive experience and clinical knowledge that may delay clinical workflow, treatment and drug delivery, which may increase clinical risk and hazards to the patients.
Traditional clinical diagnosis and evaluation methods typically focus on parameter deviations and changes of the waveform data, such as SPO2 oxygen saturation level, R wave amplitude, RR wave interval and duration, ST segment voltage, etc. However, if the amplitude and timing of these parameters are not changing, clinical users may easily ignore or pay less attention to tiny and subtle changes in waveform morphology.
Currently, there are no known methods that efficiently and effectively combine and analyze both oximetric and blood pressure waveforms and data. Additionally, conventional clinical methods include some mapping technologies, such as intra-cardiac electrograms (ICEG) mapping of the three-dimensional (3D) heart function. However, there are no known efficient mapping methods for multi-channel blood pressure and SPO2 signals for heart or whole circulation system. Further, known clinical SPO2-based methods focus on the oxygen content in the blood, which may help to monitor functions of the lung, heart and respiration. However, these techniques are typically qualitative, and may not be able provide precise information on the severity, type, location, trend, etc., of the pathology. Even further, most conventional catheter technologies and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (ICD) devices use intra-cardiac electrograms or electrophysiological action potential signals to diagnose and control the pacing rate and electrical shock treatment (e.g., cardiac ablation to eliminate fibrillation). Blood and SPO2 signals are not known to be used in a closed loop treatment.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide an improved framework to address these deficiencies and related problems.